It comes and never goes, because it is not something coming from outside, a breeze. It is something growing within you, expanding within you, your own spaciousness. There is no way for it to go; where it will go? You are it. The trust is your very being. It does not depend on any conditions. It makes no expectations, hence there is no way to take it away. Even if the master, the friend, deceives you, the trust is not going to change. And sometimes masters have deceived – knowingly, just to see whether there is trust or you are in some misunderstanding.

It happened…. It used to happen almost every day in Gurdjieff’s life. One very rich woman – because it was the revolution time in Russia and all the rich people has left the country, and they were making their own small groups in different places. So for Gurdjieff it was very easily to find only the rich people, because he knew only Russian.

One woman was very much interested, very cultured and super-rich, was part of the royal family of czar. She wanted to be initiated by Gurdjieff, to be taken as a disciple.

Gurdjieff said, “My condition is, first bring all your jewelry.” And it was much, millions of dollars worth. “First your jewelry you surrender to me, then I will think about it.” Then too he will think about it!

She went back and asked her friend who had brought her to Gurdjieff that, “What is this nonsense?” The woman laughed. She said, “Don’t be worried about it. The same he did with me. I filled all my jewelry in a suitcase, gave it to him and told him, ‘Now, you can think, I will be waiting. Whenever you will call, I will come. If you decide not to call me, that too is okay. Whatever you decide is okay, because whatever you will decide will be beneficial for me. It is your decision, that is enough. It doesn’t matter whether you initiate me or not. But I will follow your decision. If you say no, I will never come again. And, please, keep the jewelry. Don’t return it, because that is not a condition between us.’“

And the woman said, “Next day Gurdjieff called me. He initiated me and gave me the whole box. He said, ‘It was not a condition. Now I give you as a gift from me. All this jewelry, what I am going to do? You take it.’“

So the other woman said, “If this is the case, then there is no problem. That man is trustworthy. I was unnecessarily suspecting him.” She filled all her jewelry into a suitcase, rushed…Gurdjieff took the case and told her, “Sit down, take your initiation.” She was very much happy, waiting for the suitcase to be returned. It was never returned. This second woman has written in her autobiography that, “His not returning the suitcase make* me aware for the first time that you cannot deceive that man. He knows what is trust, and he knows what is not. I had never trusted him. I had given the jewelry believing that he will return it back.”